PROGRESS IN EDUCATION

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2928, 14 November 1916, Page 6

PROGRESS IN EDUCATION

Practical interest in matters of education is always to be welcomed, but -a resolution passed last week by tho Wellington branch of_ tho Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants suggests that its members have not given the attentive consideration they merit to certain changes in the educational system of the Dominion proposed by the Minister of Education. The protest embodied in the resolution was aimed at the new regulations which raise the standard of proficiency certificates in Standard VI, and so demand a greater degree of merit is now required of pupils completing the primary course, to gain free places at secondary schools. The prospective change is attacked on the ground that it will tend to debar tho children of working-class people from gaining free places at secondary schools and to keep them on the lower rung of the ladder, while those parents in more affluent circumstances will uot be penalised in the Same way. Few, we think, will be inclined to admit that a reasonable elevation of the standard now required in candidates for proficiency certificates would impose a special hardship on the children of working-class parents in this country. Tne object aimed at is i!o eliminato those children of all classes, hot any particular class, who would not profit by a course of secondary instruction, and to select those who would. So far as the State administration of education is concerned, there is not the slightest ground for believing that the process of selection will operate to the detriment of the children of working-class parents, and to the benefit of any other class. A process of selection by merit is necessary iu the interests of educational efficiency and in the interests of children generally. There is no room for disagreement as to the broad lines on which an educational system should be laid down and administered. The object aimed at must be the greatest possible profit to each' individual, and to tho Stale. Such an ideal is not served but violated by piling children indiscriminately into secondary _ schools, without regard to qualification, or with a merely nominal test of qualification. Natural gifts alone should entitle any child, rich or poor, to progress by stages into the higher walks of State education, but it is necessary also that provision on other line's should be made for the less talented children who must always constitute the majority. This most certainly does not imply the imposition of unfair - handicap on children of limited means. It is ability, and not wealth, that is in question. The extent to which the recent protest ofthe Railway Servants is wide of its intended mark is best realised by considering the circumstances in which the changes now contemplated are proposed, and will take effect. All, or nearly all, who have discussed the subject are agreed that the existing secondary course is a blind alley to a large proportion of the children concerned. Many of them enter upon a brief course at a secondary school only to gain a smattering of knowlege which is of no particular use, and which they are not able subsequently to follow up or extend. This is bad for these particular children, and bad also for' those to whom the secondary course is a useful steppingstone. In the circumstances that exist there is a tendency to reduce secondary education to a state of muddle. It would be an undoubted reform to change this condition of affairs by diverting many of the children at present entering second- , ary schools into other channels, • where they would be more likely to : derive personal profit and justify , the incidental outlay by the State. The Minister does not propose to ; cut down the scope of secondary instruction and leave an equivalent gap. His proposal is to pro- : vide for those children who at

present practically waste their time in secondary / schools by extending the scope of technical instruction, which aims at equipping young people in a practical way for

the pursuits they intend to follow, while at the same timo paying clue regard to the promotion of general culture. This is a proposal on right lines, which might have been expected to elicit the approval and support, rather than the hostile protest, of'a Labour organisation, lb is extremely important that the opportunity 'of gaining a university education should be open to all students whose right to the privilege is founded on ability. But it is even more important that the edu» cation of the majority should bo cast on raoro practical and useful lines than it is at present, and the new regulations may be regarded as a step in that direction.